The early days of Emirati geological science

[Geological survey - UAE]. [Archive of Adnan al-Nakash - United Arab Emirates geological survey].

€ 18,500.00

An Al-Ain university professor's extensive archive of photographs from the early geological surveys of the newly formed United Arab Emirates, contemporary with the Huntington Aerial surveys which mapped the UAE from the air. Ranging from 1979 to 1981, the photographs collected by Prof. Adnan al-Nakash follow survey expeditions to the whole of the UAE, especially the important border regions on and around the eastern coasts of Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah. These surveys were performed by a mix of foreign and Emirati scientists working collaboratively in the field, including Adnan al-Nakash himself, who appears in at least one (and likely several) photographs, along with his colleagues Muhammad Yusuf Ahsan and Muhammad Al-Warraq.

Early geological surveys of the UAE were of great importance; they were the first to document the resource wealth of the newly founded country, especially regarding oil prospecting and drilling, but also preserved a rich record of Emirati geology, and, incidentally, of the changing face of the Emirati landscape: many of the photographs show the newly paved highway system, modern buildings, and other infrastructure. Additionally, al-Nakash's archive may have been used (as the simultaneous aerial surveys likely were) as a reference for new geopolitical boundaries with Oman and Saudi Arabia.

The majority of the photographs document geological features, from entire landscapes to finite details of stratigraphy. In the latter case, geologists used whatever was at hand to provide scale, often a pickax, camera lens, and occasionally a can of Pepsi-Cola. Altogether, a key snapshot of early Emirati geological science with an important provenance.